Much like an ordinary printed book, electronic books (xe2x80x9ceBooksxe2x80x9d) can be used to present text and pictures to readers. Instead of ink and paper, however, an electronic book is a collection of digital data that software, known as an electronic book reader, can interpret and present on a display. A variety of devices run electronic book reader software such as personal computers, handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones with displays, and so forth.
Electronic books can offer a variety of features not traditionally associated with print books. For example, instead of text and pictures, an electronic book may also store data used to present sound such as music and speech. Further, instead of still pictures, an electronic book can also present animated images. Additionally, by transmitting eBook data over a computer network, eBooks can be delivered to remote locations almost instantaneously.
Unfortunately, in many ways, copying data is easier than photocopying pages of a book. To protect the rights of those trying to sell or otherwise limit access to electronic books from pirating, companies have developed a wide variety of digital rights management (DRM) systems. For example, Microsoft currently offers a xe2x80x9cDigital Asset Serverxe2x80x9d that guards against unauthorized user access to Microsoft Reader eBooks. Similarly, Adobe offers a number of different DRM solutions such as Adobe Content Server.
DRM solutions differ significantly in their approaches to the task of controlling access to eBooks. For the purposes of illustration, however, FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a typical DRM scheme. As shown in FIG. 1, a client 104, such as a PDA or personal computer, can send a message 108 to a server 100 over a network 102 such as the Internet. The message 108 requests access to an eBook and includes credentials of the requester such as the identity of the device 104 and/or reader software making the request. The server 100 uses the credentials to scramble (i.e., encrypt) the data of the requested eBook. As shown in FIG. 2, the server 100 then sends the scrambled data 106 to the requesting client 104. Using its own credentials, the client 104 reader can unscramble (i.e., decrypt) and present the eBook to a user. If a device other than the client 104 receives the eBook data, it should lack the proper credentials needed to perform the unscrambling.
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method of distributing electronic books over a computer network. The method includes transmitting user interface instructions to a publisher""s network client in response to an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request received from the client. The user interface instructions provide a web-page form that enables the publisher to identify electronic content and corresponding metadata. The metadata includes designation of at least one electronic book digital rights management system from at least two supported digital rights management schemes from different unaffiliated vendors. The metadata also including hard printing information.
After receiving the identified electronic content and metadata from the network client, the method includes automatically generating an electronic book from the received electronic content corresponding to the identified electronic book digital rights management system. The method also includes storing the metadata with metadata associated with other received electronic content, selecting metadata from the stored metadata that corresponds to electronic content authorized for a retailer, and storing at least a portion of the selected metadata for transmission to the retailer over the network in accordance with formatting information received from the retailer. The method further includes receiving a request for the electronic book from a network client in response to a user""s selection of the corresponding electronic content from a user interface provided by the retailer, determining whether to distribute the electronic book to the network client by applying one or more business rules to the request, and distributing the electronic book to the network client in accordance with the electronic book""s electronic book digital rights management system.